Today, continuing the annual tradition for 2016, free speech radio KPFA broadcast live from the Sunrise Ceremony on Alcatraz Island. Since 1970, Native Americans of New England also hold a similar National Day of Mourningevent on the fourth Thursday of November, the same day as the holiday, which President Lincoln coined, Thanksgiving. The Alcatraz Island Sunrise Ceremony event is usually sold out, as authorities only allow a certain number of visitors on the island at any one time. (And to get to Alcatraz Island, each person must pay the Alcatraz Island ferry service fee.) Diverse groups of people gather in solidarity on this national day of mourning for indigenous peoples rights. The American myth of Thanksgiving, by which noble settlers pioneered undiscovered lands, giving thanks to their native neighbours with whom they traded, gives way to genocide and bloodshed when confronted with the cold reality of history. For indigenous peoples, today, the fourth Thursday of November, is a National Day of Mourning. When the American Indian Movement occupied Alcatraz Island back in November of 1969, they turned to KPFA radio in Berkeley, CA and the Pacifica Radio Network to get their voices out to the American people. Now, as then, free speech KPFA radio is the only broadcaster to provide coverage of the annual Sunrise Ceremony on Alcatraz Island. Listen (and/or download) here. [1]

LUMPENPROLETARIAT—No suckers allowed to break bread or asunder
The daylight, lightning, and the thunder
The sun, moon, and stars and the hunger
Abundance in bundles, blessings and troubles
Towers and tunnels, views and valleys, waves
Then pigs: ‘What streets you from, son?’
Planet Earth

[break]
True, and livin’ by the G code
What the fuck is fleek though?
Don’t ask them; what do he know?
What I forgot is better than whatever they remember
Never mind, I’m off it; it’s quiet form
Time to put the temper tantrums to the quiet corner
“Hush! That’s enough,” said the ruler
No suckers allowed to break bread or asunder
The daylight, lightning, and the thunder
The sun, moon and stars, and the hunger
Abundance in bundles, blessings and troubles
Towers and tunnels, views and valleys, waves
Then pigs: ‘What streets you from, son?’
Planet Earth
And ain’t scared of no Mars attack
What type of bars is that?
Stay off my jack
I’m at they corny riot garments top-5 Dylan-i’n on ‘em
Superfly slicker top floor eagle divin’ on ‘em
Yo, why ya lyin’ homey?
You won’t play with my emotions, smokey
Big Chief heart rate; big beat; B-E-Y; Yasiin
Straightjacket come clean; Big said it was a dream
Now it’s a living thing; we true and living kings

I mean it, I mean
I meant it, I mean
Yasiin and Yasiin in the R-E-D
I mean it, I mean
Original nation, we pon solid; I mean
I mean it, I mean
Straightjacket come clean
Yasiin and Yasiin; in the R-E-D
Original nation; we pon solid with with
True and living you know; we’re true and living

[Verse 2: Narcy]
Illumi-Narcy
Emergency on Planet Earth
The currency is murder; you a man of worth
They say the day is comin’; comin’ that you can’t reverse
Watch the planet burn with all the cannon bursts
Don’t chase an illusion, the Nation Halluci
Hallelujah
Taste of the future; the people that shower
The piss of a coward, then face it and shoot ya
Lonely martyrs, magic carpets, dirty blankets
Coca-Cola soul controller holy waters
Middle East mode; San Glorious
G code and Babylonian, the Orient
My superhero got the people powerYasiin and Yasiin; you should heed the hour

A Tribe Called Red

Aboriginal electronic group A Tribe Called Red (ATCR) has garnered international acclaim for its politically charged, powwow drum-driven dance music. Featuring DJ NDN (Ian Campeau), Bear Witness (Thomas Ehren Ramon) and 2oolman (Tim Hill), the group emerged from an Ottawa club party called Electric Pow Wow, which began in 2007. Former members include Dee Jay Frame (Jon Limoges) and DJ Shub (Dan General). The group has described its “powwow step” music as “the soundtrack to a contemporary evolution of the powwow.” ATCR is part of what broadcaster and educator Wab Kinew has called the “Indigenous Music Renaissance,” an innovative new generation of Aboriginal artists in Canada. The group was nominated for the 2013 Polaris Music Prize and won the 2014 Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year.

Background and Formation

Inspired by parties for Korean and South Asian youth in Ottawa, Ian “DJ NDN” Campeau, an Ojibwa nightclub bouncer-turned DJ, became interested in a similar event for Aboriginal youth. After discussing the idea with his friend, Bear Witness, who is Cayuga, and fellow disc jockey Dee Jay Frame, who is Mohawk, they began the first night at Ottawa’s Babylon nightclub in 2007, calling it Electric Pow Wow.

Encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive response, the DJs began holding the event on the second weekend of every month (a schedule still in effect as of August 2015). The parties featured a mixture of traditional powwow recordings from Campeau’s youth, when he performed as a drummer, and mixed them with electronic music rhythms and genres such as dubstep, moombahton and dancehall. The group calls the blend of genres “powwow step.”

The Electric Pow Wow appealed directly to Aboriginal youth in Ottawa, but also drew a large number of non-Aboriginal people. In addition to music, the parties featured multimedia presentations by Bear Witness, who drew on his mother’s activist background to create multimedia shows that re-contextualized stereotypical depictions of Aboriginal peoples from films and television shows.

Dan General (aka DJ Shub) — who had developed a reputation as a skilled DJ and had won the Canadian DMC Finals in 2007 and 2008 — attended an Electric Pow Wow in 2008. He enjoyed the event so much he sent DJ NDN a song he’d written (it eventually became the track “Electric Pow Wow Drum”) and was soon invited to join the group, making A Tribe Called Red a quartet.

***

[A TRIBE CALLED RED lyrics are property and copyright of their owners. “R.E.D.” lyrics are provided here for educational and personal use only.]

LUMPENPROLETARIAT Another Honduran citizen and indigenous rights leader has been assassinated, apparently, by USA-backed neoliberal Honduran death squads, including the poison pens of Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration, determined to proletarianise, to push indigenous Hondurans off their lands, where they’re self-sufficient, and push them onto the mercy of a capitalist mode of production and exploitation, where they face poverty and dependency.

The internationally renowned environmental and indigenous rights leader Berta Cáceres (c. 1973-2016) was not the first and, outrageously, Nelson García will likely not be the last indigenous leader to be assassinated by the forces of transnational capital and neoliberalism. Twelve environmental defenders were killed in Honduras in 2014, according to research by Global Witness, which makes it the most dangerous country in the world, relative to its size, for activists protecting forests and rivers.

And, now, indigenous rights leader Nelson García was assassinated yesterday, 15 MAR 2016, “shot dead in the face by unidentified gunmen as he returned to his family home in Río Lindo, north-west Honduras – about 100 miles south of La Esperanza where Cáceres was murdered at home on 3 March.” Honduras is a very different place since President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton helped overthrow the Central American nation’s democratically-elected center-left president Manuel Zelaya in 2009. Listen to (or download) breaking coverage here. [1]

Messina

***

[Partial transcript of actual radio broadcast by Messina for Lumpenproletariat and Flashpoints]

FLASHPOINTS—[16 MAR 2016] “Today, on Flashpoints, the brutal assassination of Nelson García, an indigenous rights leader in Honduras and a member of the same rights group as slain activist Berta Cáceres. Also, an in-depth follow-up report on the continuing dangers the world faces at Fukushima, Japan. And we’ll feature our regular on-air presentation of Electronic Intifada with Nora Barrows-Friedman. I’m Dennis Bernstein. All this, straight ahead on Flashpoints. Stay tuned.” (c. 0:50)

[brief intro theme music break]

DENNIS BERNSTEIN: “And you’re listening to Flashpoints on Pacifica Radio. I just want to urge you to stay tuned. Later on in the broadcast, we will be joined by Beverly Bell for the latest in the tragedies of Honduras and the killing of indigenous leaders there. A second murder and many lives are now hanging in the balance. That’s coming up later on in the broadcast.

“But first I wanted to continue our dialogue on Fukushima, remind people exactly how dangerous it is, see if we can get some more information about what’s going on with the people closest have faced. (c. 1:45) [SNIP]

DENNIS BERNSTEIN: [SNIP] (c. 42:05)

“You are listening to Flashpoints on Pacifica Radio. And, uh, I don’t know how to say this. We now turn our attention to another terrible assassination, the assassination of Nelson García.

“Now, this is a member of the same indigenous rights group, as murdered activist Berta Cáceres. This is in Honduras. This is a very lethal situation. And the danger is only getting worse and more widespread.

“Joining us to talk about it is Beverly Bell. Beverly welcome back to Flashpoints. And tell us what happened here. This is, this is just two weeks after the late night [i.e., early morning] murder of Berta.” (c. 43:01)

BEVERLY BELL: “Yes. Hi, Dennis. We’ve gotta stop meeting like this.”

DENNIS BERNSTEIN: “I’m sorry.”

BEVERLY BELL: “The news in Honduras keeps getting worse.”

DENNIS BERNSTEIN: “I’m sorry.”

BEVERLY BELL: “Yeah. What happened yesterday was that the Honduran government declared its second stage of war. (c. 43:19) [SNIP]

[This transcript will be expanded as time constraints, and/or demand or resources, allow.]

***

THE GUARDIAN—[16 MAR 2016] Another indigenous activist has been murdered in Honduras amid an escalating wave of repression against the relatives and colleagues of renowned campaigner Berta Cáceres, who was murdered less than two weeks ago.

Nelson García, 38, an active member of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras (Copinh) was killed on Tuesday after a violent eviction carried out by Honduran security forces in a nearby Lenca indigenous community.

García was shot dead in the face by unidentified gunmen as he returned to his family home in Río Lindo, north-west Honduras – about 100 miles south of La Esperanza where Cáceres was murdered at home on 3 March.

García spent the morning with the Río Chiquito community where more than one hundred police and military officers helped evict dozens of families from land which local politicians claim doesn’t belong to them. Their simple timber houses and crops were destroyed using heavy machinery yesterday morning, according to Copinh.

Last year, the activist won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for her opposition to one of the region’s biggest hydroelectric projects, a cascade of four dams in the Gualcarque river basin, including the Agua Zarca dam. The river is sacred to the Lenca people and the proposed dam would cut-off food and medicine supplies to nearby communities.

Cáceres was shot dead at her home after suffering years of intimidation and threats against her life linked to her activism.

Since then, there has been growing fears for the safety of her colleagues and family members who have been subject to harassment and intimidation by the authorities.